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Donald Trump Jr. said he met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last June at Trump Tower to discuss compromising information she said she had on Hillary Clinton, but was disappointed when she changed the subject to Russia's adoption policy.

I've been wondering about this. One of things that I found interesting about the Trump/Russia collusion story is the GOPs most notorious Russophile was nowhere to be found. Now, that could be chalked up to good compartmentalizing by the Russians.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during a 2016 trip to Moscow, a previously undisclosed tête-à-tête that sheds additional light on the extent to which Moscow-based political operatives sought to influence American officials in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

Small world. Nothing to connect him with the Trump campaign, but it's a not-so-subtle reminder that you shouldn't trust a word that comes out of this guy's mouth.

The meeting with the Russian lawyer who was seeking relief for adoptions had no dirt,

Originally Posted by subego

Explain this morality where Don Jr's intent is irrelevant.

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Or try to explain to your wife that you just failed at cheating at her, and that the woman you met with in secret was in the end just interested in “being friends”. Do you think she'll be understanding or do you think she'll be hurt and furious?

Actually, it’s not. Both the birther and Russian collusion conspiracy theories were cooked up by Democrat operatives, Clapper being the father of the current theory.

Why do you think Obama went after Sheriff Joe? He was getting close to the truth!

You'll excuse me if I don't put a ton of credence into the conspiracies you peddle coming from a guy that thinks that climate change is a massive global conspiracy among tens of thousands of scientists.

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.

President Trump plans to spend at least $430,000 of his personal funds to help cover the mounting legal costs incurred by White House staff and campaign aides related to the ongoing investigations of Russian meddling in last year’s election, a White House official said.

In the wake of Canada’s new Magnitsky act, Putin has tried again. Tried for a fifth time. Interpol has accepted his request. Worse, the U.S. government seems in partnership with the Kremlin: Our government has revoked Browder’s visa. (American-born, Browder is a British citizen.)

Fusion GPS’ work researching Trump began during the Republican presidential primaries when the GOP donor paid for the firm to investigate the real estate tycoon’s background.

Fusion GPS did not start off looking at Trump’s Russia ties, but quickly realized that those relationships were extensive, according to the people familiar with the matter.

When the Republican donor stopped paying for the research, Elias, acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, agreed to pay for the work to continue.

The Democrats paid for research, including by Fusion GPS, because of concerns that little was known about Trump and his business interests, according to the people familiar with the matter.

These people said it is standard practice for political campaigns to use law firms to hire outside researchers in order to ensure their work is protected by attorney-client and work product privileges.

The Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in ‘‘legal and compliance consulting’’ since Nov. 2015 — though it’s impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS.

At no point, these people said, did the Clinton campaign or the DNC direct Steele’s activities. They described him as a Fusion GPS subcontractor.

Again, I thought that this was clear months ago and I don‘t see what the news is now the story as I remember is this: the Democrats (or some PAC or super PAC associated with the Clinton campaign) had paid Steele to get opposition research. They decided against using it in the campaign and Steele tried to get various publications to publish it. Until one eventually did and we had to endure pee jokes for a while. What is the story now? That the WP pinpointed the exact organization or person who footed the bill? (I don‘t want to come across as aggressive, I honestly don‘t get what is new.)

The Washington Free Beacon has copped to paying Fusion for standard oppo research. This was before Steele was brought into the picture. The Steele Dossier is 100% Clinton/DNC property. Several millions worth.

Mueller has filed his first charges under seal, so we don't know who's going to be arrested, or for what. Speculation is the arrest(s) will happen Monday.

It's interesting that the news hit late Friday - perhaps someone is supposed to squirm over the weekend. Or they want to see who makes a run for the airport.

Anyway, fun times begin Monday.

I think conventional wisdom says its Manafort – we already know they did a morning raid on his house. Next would be Flynn, since he is the only other one with citable conflicts and violations of law. I read that Flynn, Jr deleted his twitter account, so I'm actually leaning towards it being him.

Firstly, Jr. was Flynn's CoS, and seems to be in as deep as his father. Picking him up instead puts pressure on Flynn, assuming that's what Mueller wants.

---

I do have to say, I'm perplexed by media reaction to the news. A good amount seem to think that the news of the past week was the administration, if not the GOP establishment and media, trying to change the topic pre-emptively. I'm skeptical because I wonder how they could know before the rest of the media.

That said, Roger Stone going apoplectic over the news warms my heart. He's too crazy to read too much into it, but with his passing communications to Guccifer and Assange, if this hole goes deep I have to imagine he has a chance of being implicated.

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Oh, some conspiracy fodder: Dana Boente resigned as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Rumor is the admin wanted to be able to name his replacement. I can only infer that his territory has overlap with Washington politicos.

I think the real speculation isn't about who got indicted – its how will Trump react. People still think he'll go full bore and fire Mueller. I just don't buy it.

Don't be too sure. Conservative media have started their smear campaign against Mueller, including claims that because some of the investigation concerns the FBI, he can't be impartial. Honestly, I think Trump is more likely to issue blanket pardons. However, that may not be enough to get some people off the hook, because the scuttlebutt is that he is also looking into charging some people under state law — out of reach of the President's pardon powers. (Presidents can only issue pardons for federal offenses.)

The Washington Free Beacon has copped to paying Fusion for standard oppo research. This was before Steele was brought into the picture. The Steele Dossier is 100% Clinton/DNC property. Several millions worth.

Papadopoulos is the real stuff. I think I either read or posted something about him earlier in the thread. I believe he was a Trump staffer who repeatedly offered to set up a meeting with the Russians for dirt.

My impression at the time was that he was low level and while the article had his emails, not a single reply was included. To me, it made the Trump campaign look good - ignoring an offer to collude with a Russian.

Nothing I've read today changes that impression but it's worth noting he was arrested in late July and that didn't leak, and he's been cooperating since then.

Sam Clovis, the former top Trump campaign official who supervised a man now cooperating with the FBI's Russia investigation, was questioned last week by special counsel Robert Mueller's team and testified before the investigating grand jury, a person with first-hand knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The court documents unsealed Monday describe emails between Papadopoulos and an unnamed "campaign supervisor." The supervisor responded "Great work" after Papadopoulos discussed his interactions with Russians who wanted to arrange a meeting with Trump and Russian leaders.

Toensing confirmed that Clovis was the campaign supervisor in the emails.

Papadopoulos is the real stuff. I think I either read or posted something about him earlier in the thread. I believe he was a Trump staffer who repeatedly offered to set up a meeting with the Russians for dirt.

My impression at the time was that he was low level and while the article had his emails, not a single reply was included. To me, it made the Trump campaign look good - ignoring an offer to collude with a Russian.

Nothing I've read today changes that impression but it's worth noting he was arrested in late July and that didn't leak, and he's been cooperating since then.

On the other hand, why would a campaign keep around a guy who kept offering to collude with the Russian? Wouldn't you cut him loose to limit your exposure? They certainly claim he wasn't worth much to them.

On the other hand, why would a campaign keep around a guy who kept offering to collude with the Russian? Wouldn't you cut him loose to limit your exposure? They certainly claim he wasn't worth much to them.

That's assuming the people who ran the campaign and were involved are criminal masterminds. If you add a dab of incompetency and bit of arrogance, I can see how it played out the way it did.